Thanksgiving Day will be the 1,308th day of the Flint water crisis.
For residents, that’s 1,308 days without being able to drink from the tap.
Melissa Mays used 58 bottles to cook her family’s Thanksgiving meal last year.
It’s not.” She kept a tally on a whiteboard of how many bottles she needed for each task, and posted it to Twitter, which she plans to do again this year: Thaw turkey: 24 bottles Soak turkey in brine: 9 bottles Turkey rinse: 3 bottles Rinse veggies: 6 bottles Couscous and lentil: 10 bottles Mashed potatoes: 6 bottles Mays, who has become a water activist since the Flint crisis began, will be cooking with her three teenage sons and her husband again this year.
But cooking the Thanksgiving meal is an acute reminder of the situation Flint residents have been in for over three years.
Selig, who lives in Flint, also teaches free “water crisis” classes, open to the public.
That might make people feel safe to wash their dishes, but almost no one is drinking from the tap, even with the filters.
Local officials didn’t report finding Legionella in the water system to the state for more than a year.
I don’t trust the government right now,” says Selig.
“It makes you a lot more grateful for what you do have,” Mays says.